STATE'S ATTORNEY'S ERODING COMMUNITY/ POLICE RELATIONS

There needs to be a better way of handling Officer Involved Police Shootings.

We have seen it nationwide, Baltimore, St. Louis and now New haven.

In Connecticut, we have seen first hand the reluctance of State's Attorneys to be transparent. It is not the Chief State's Attorney, it is the States Attorney's for the individual Counties. The County State's Attorneys do not actually answer to the Chief State's Attorney, it is a peculiar system , but that is the way it works.

A couple years ago when Hartford Police Officers were involved in a chase that ended on Flatbush Avenue in West Hartford, allegations of excessive force were made against Hartford Police Officers. The ensuing investigation was turned over to the Connecticut State Police and the Litchfield County States Attorney.

At the time, I was able to see first hand the messed up nature of the system. Chief James Rovella was HPD's Chief at the time and he understood the importance of being transparent and sharing details with his community partners. It was a matter of trust built on relationships with the community.

Despite numerous requests by Rovella to the investigators and the Litchfield States Attorney to release all video of the incident, they refused for almost a year.This did not help to build trust or confidence by the community in their Police Department.

Now let's look at the OIS by the Hamden Police on the streets of New Haven this past week It should be a training lesson by the Hamden Police Department and the State's Attorney in how NOT to handle a Police Shooting.

Recently when HPD had an Officer Involved Shooting, within hours the radio recordings were released. Hamden could insist on doing the same thing

Although there is substantial video and radio recordings of the incident, none of that has been released, even a tensions continue to build in the Community. There are more questions than answers coming out of this shooting and every day that goes by without answers it erodes the needed trust more. There is no reason not to release video  or radio recordings, other than to show it was a mess.

Anyone that watched the video that was widely circulated from the business in front of the shooting scene should realize it was a terrible situation. The tactics used by the Hamden Officer should require a trip back to the Academy for retraining at the very least. Now none of us were there and it is easy to second guess the actions not knowing what was going on. The first thing is the way the Hamden Officer parked and ran up to the suspects car without any cover. Now his backup may have been coming in from the opposite direction, out of camera view. He didn't take cover and order the occupants out of the car along with backup officers, he appears to charge at the car firing.

Now if there were backup officers arriving to the right, out of the camera view, the Hamden Officer would have put them in the crossfire of an rounds he fired. Which apparently he did, and from what sources familiar with the investigation are telling me, the Yale Officer who was injured was grazed by a bullet from the Hamden Officer. We are very fortunate that LEO's are not planning a funeral this weekend and we are also fortunate that CSP are not preparing a homicide arrest warrant against a Hamden Police Officer and the passenger in the car is recovering.

Apparently no weapon has been found in the vehicle as of this time.

Hamden and the New Haven States Attorney need to come out and release their initial findings  immediately. When did Hamden advise New Haven they were coming into their town? How did Yale PD find out what was going on to arrive before New Haven PD? All of that will probably be revealed in radio recordings and the video will be the same today tomorrow as well as a year from now and it will not change the facts one bit if it is released now. It will not change the facts one bit or taint a potential jury pool, but it will show the community, many of who already mistrust the Police, that they are being transparent. It also appears that the way that the call was dispatched was very flawed and indicated an armed robbery with a gun , but that appears to not be the case

The fact that Hamden has an "interim" Police Chief  probably isn't helpful, especially if he is hoping to obtain the permanent Chief position.

But on the other hand, he should know the importance of being honest with the community he serves. If it was bad or if poor techniques were used or  if training for his officers is less than adequate, he needs to be willing to say that and commit to making changes to fix it and work to begin rebuilding any community trust and good will that has been lost by this incident.

The New Haven States Attorney also need to see that tensions flaring serves no purpose and  steps should be taken immediately to diffuse that. As for the involvement of the Connecticut State Police, former Hartford Police Chief , now the Commissioner of Public Safety, oversees CSP. Anyone concerned about handling this matter properly should call him and ask for some advice. Rovella has been through it before and I am pretty confident he understands the value of maintaining the public's trust and transparency and could provide some excellent guidance

CAUTION; OBSCENE CONTENT, HARTFORD SCHOOLS ADMINISTRATIVE SALARIES UNVEILED

I am almost tempted to put a "XXX" warning on this post for its obscene content.

I can see why Hartford's Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez stonewalled me for 2 months and only released this information after I filed a complaint with the State FOI Commission. That and embarrassing Leslie Torres-Rodriguez  previously  in a blog post yesterday  and by some miracle, the documents were e-mailed to me at 10:27PM last night. I had been told by a source in the Superintendent's that the documents I requested were readily available in an electronic format, but the BOE Empress did not want them out in the public

This list is not about educating children, it is about building a Kingdom of servants loyal to Leslie Torres-Rodriguez. With salaries like this. the Hartford Schools Should be graduating a huge number of Rhodes Scholars, not the children they shove through unable to read or write at graduation.

The Hartford Schools are broken and I wonder when parents are going to demand it gets fixed with competent leadership 

Co Admin Salaries on Scribd

ISN'T IT FUNNY HOW THIS WORKS, THE SUPERINTENDEDNT COMES OUT OF HER BUNKER

Yesterday I posted after my frustration for trying almost two months to get documents from the office of Hartford's Superintendent of Schools Leslie Torres-Rodriguez. The request was for very basic documents. Documents which I was told by a source in the Superintendent's Office were readily available.

The document requested, a list of salaries in the Superintendent's Office, was readily available and did not take any research to provide it, other than hitting the print key on a computer.

I am still reviewing the documents now. I am sure once I post them you will quickly see why Leslie Torres- Rodriguez didn't want me to see them. The salaries , as well as the number of high priced salaries is obscene.

They will be posted in their entirety later today

Until then, Leslie Torres - Rodriguez has retreated back into her bunker.

HARTFORD CITY COUNCIL AGENDA PACKAGE FOR 4-22-19

Agenda Package Court of Common Council Meeting April 22, 2019  on Scribd

WHAT IS HARTFORD SUPERINTENDENT LESLIE TORRES-RODRIGUEZ HIDING

On February 28, 2019 I made a Freedom of Information request  for documents from the Office of Hartford's Superintendent of Schools Leslie Torres--Rodriguez.

Specific documents were requested as follows :

 In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, I am requesting the following:

>>1.)Any list, document or report that shows all salaries in the Hartford Schools Central Office as well as School Administrators.

>>Any document, e-mails or reports regarding the assault on a Hartford School  teacher on or about December 23, 2018 by a Cassandra DeCosta, a parent. To this date, the requested documents have not been provided although I have been told that they are readily available. I am sure the release will be an embarrassment to the Superintendent when people see the money being paid out in salaries for here staff and minions around her. It will also be interesting how they cover for an assault on a teacher at a time when access to the school is supposed to be controlled for the safety of the students. I have filed a formal complaint with the State of Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission for an investigation and hearing into the Superintendents violation of the law.

HARTFORD CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS AVAILABLE ON LINE

Hartford City Clerk John Bazzano and his staff have taken a monumental step forward in election transparency.

 The required Municipal Campaign Finance reports can now be viewed on line, In the past , it would have required a trip to the City Clerk's Office and go through the drawers of filing cabinets to actually read the reports and then pay for any copies you wanted.

 A huge thank you to John Bazzano and his staff for setting this up and making it happen.

 You can review the reports on -line herehttp://hartford.gov/townclerk/campaign-finance

IT WILL BE BACK

This is not my typical posting.

I have never given much thought to Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral until I saw it engulfed in fire yesterday. I guess it is true what they say, "We don't realize what we have until it is gone." As I watched the news coverage into the night, I along with most people observing probably thought there was no way any of it would survive. In the end, it was not gone, but severely damaged

As I wondered how they would ever rebuild the Cathedral if some of it did survive, I began to start wondering what type of craftsmen could have built this colossal cathedral hundreds of years ago. I am sure that type of craftsmen do not exist or are even trained in the various arts these days.

How many lives were lost working at such heights with very primitive safety equipment and regulations compared to today. The heights alone must have been a challenge without our modern day scaffolding and harnesses.No hydraulic cranes or loaders or forklifts. Real craftsmen using hand tools and techniques passed down through families, from grandfathers to fathers to sons for centuries to create such a masterpiece.

Just imagine the detail in the stone carving, the  statues, the gargoyles that serve as drain spots, the magnificent stained glass lead windows. Al the stones lifted into place without machinery, just men and ropes and pulleys. Not to mention the architectural designs without any computer assistance

I haven't heard anything specific yet, but it will probably be a modern day craftsman that set the building on fire using a modern day torch or cutting tool on the renovations.

A couple of videos below explain more of the history and majesty of Notre Dame Cathedral that I found interesting.

THE SMOLLETT SYNDROME IS ALIVE AND WELL AT HPD

FACT  OR FICTION AT HPD

Well, I knew it was coming and I told you about it back on March 1st.You can read that posting here.

We all know discrimination exists in many different forms. Unfortunately, people that make up baseless discrimination claims  undermine the valid complaints by people who have actually suffered from discrimination themselves.

We just saw the example of Jussie Smolett in Chicago and his phony hate crime claims and the extent he went to fabricate his claims. Now anyone  coming forward with legitimate claims will be looked at with skepticism.

Now, if you actually read my posting highlighted above, here is another baseless discrimination complaint that a Hartford Police Lieutenant was passed over for promotion because she is female. This at the same time that other females were being promoted to various ranks, including a Deputy Chief and other Lieutenants.

Maybe the Lieutenant filing her discrimination complaint needs to take a look in the mirror and realize that she was not passed over because she is a female. No, she was passed over because she is a terrible supervisor and devoid of any leadership skills. Her track record of sexual harassment against male officers as well as other ridiculous moves she has made over the years should have got her terminated and definitely not promoted..

Hopefully much of her track record will come out as the City and HPD defends themselves against this ridiculous claim. In the meantime, I hope she realizes how she is damaging and hurting people who want to come forward with real claims based on facts.

The complaint was obtained through a Freedom o0f Information request to Hartford's Corporation Council as a public document.

Mertes Complaint by  Scribd